Dubis Reyes is stunned. She does not stop crying while she addresses the media who have found her wandering with a friend near the Atalayas nightclub where the tragedy occurred. Her son is one of the possible victims of the cruel fire that took the lives of 13 people early Sunday morning, many of them belonging to a group of Latinos who were celebrating a birthday at the La Fonda nightclub.
She remains on the phone waiting to be informed of the situation, but there may still be time to confirm if her son, Yosi Esteban, a 34-year-old young man from Colombia, is one of the deceased. Experts have announced that the identification of bodies that, for the most part, are burned, may take days. We will have to wait to see if her mother’s DNA matches that of the young man. The Ministry of the Interior has sent Scientific Police agents to Murcia to help identify the bodies.
Dubis tells, in a heartbreaking testimony, how her son arrived in Spain a year ago, so that she would not be alone. “She came to accompany me and now I think that this would not have happened if she had stayed in my country.” She describes her son as “a very sociable being who adapted very well to this place, where he had many friends.” On the day of the tragedy, Yosi took her cousin Osneider to her house, who explained to La Vanguardia that “after leaving me he decided to continue the party again and we have not seen him again.”
The young man, from whom the worst is expected because no one saw him leave the burning nightclub, “knew everyone attending the birthday party and spent the night going up and down to the box to talk to people. “Everyone believes that the fire must have surprised him upstairs,” explains his mother in the midst of deep dismay.
Homar Muriel has not yet come out of the shock that the news caused him on Sunday when he woke up late in the morning. Owner of a nightlife place in Murcia, he had personal friendships with practically all the people who died in La Fonda, mostly the family and friends of Eric, the young man who celebrated his last birthday that night.
The establishments involved in the tragedy are places that Muriel has known for many years and she describes how they are “very conducive to the spread of flames since they were made of wood.” She acknowledges that she has not called those affected “because these are difficult days and she has to grieve, but I feel dismayed by everything that happened because they were very good people, workers and members of families adapted to Spain.”
His wife, Leonela Mendoza, bursts into the conversation with the serious face of someone who has lost friends. “They were all great people, well-known and with whom even my husband played soccer.” She talks, especially about their father, and remembers Tania with great sadness. “She is one of the deceased, she was my friend.”
The one who was caught by surprise by the news is Jon Douglas, a young man who was traveling and who spoke with La Vanguardia as soon as he arrived in Murcia. “My father, whose name is like me, is one of the deceased,” he explains, still in disbelief. The victim, 45 years old and from Ecuador, was one of the guests at Eric’s birthday. “I can’t tell you more, I’m tired and we need official confirmation. They are checking his identity with the DNA of relatives, no one has called us yet,” he explained. “Sadly we know that he was there that night accompanied by his wife.”
